10. Cleveland Browns (+3)
Welcome to the party Odell! Talk about a massive day, 3 touchdowns in different in unique ways gives me hope that the Browns are going to find ways to feature one of the best players in the NFL in new and interesting ways.
Even on a day where the Browns lost one of their best players (Nick Chubb), they managed to find another star in the running game now pairing Kareem Hunt with D’Earnest Johnson.
Cleveland got up on the Cowboys so quickly (a 24 point 2nd quarter!) that Baker Mayfield didn’t have to have a huge day, but like I said last week, that is how the Browns need to try to win going forward.
Also, that Myles Garrett kid might just be good. Watch out for him.
9. L.A. Rams (-1)
How can a team as good as the Rams win so unconvincingly against the New York Giants.
It is hard to penalize a team in these power rankings when they win, but when you let the New York Giants take you to the wire and then you get in a fight at midfield, it makes it really hard to embrace you as a major threat in the NFL.
Now that I have gotten that off of my chest, I’ll admit that the Rams defense looked really good and this is the kind of game that I love to see out of a team like L.A.
When you should be able to put up points, but can’t, then it is really easy for a defense to play at a middling level and expect the offense to eventually pick up the slack. That isn’t what happened today and the stars of that defense dominated and then the rest of the team stepped up to match that production.
It was relentless effort to keep the Giants under 10 points and going forward it is nice to know that this team isn’t like the Dallas Cowboys or Seattle Seahawks in that they can win game that aren’t shootouts if they need to.